When you purchase more than 30 acres to build a residence, the phrase “family compound” comes to mind. This is certainly the feeling that these Leesburg empty nesters sought to create when building their seven-bedroom, 20,000-square-foot dream house with extensive outdoor living areas. It was completed in 2023.
The couple, who met 25 years ago, have a large, blended family. He has two sons; she, a son and a daughter. There are more than 10 grandkids between them, ranging from baby to teen. Most of the family members live locally.
“I became involved with the project because I knew one of their daughters,” says interior designer Tracy Morris of Tracy Morris Design, who collaborated on the project with builder George Kall of Metro Building and Remodeling Group. Kall also had been referred to the job through one of the homeowners’ sons, keeping things in the family.
“This house was their dream. They had drawn it on a cocktail napkin when they first met,” says Morris. “They had always envisioned a place that would work for big family gatherings. A place where everyone would come to play on a sunny Sunday afternoon.”
For Morris and Kall, who met on the job, the process of successfully constructing the traditional-style house, with extensive Pennsylvania Fieldstone detailing, was no small undertaking.
“The scale of the home alone was massive. The challenge for us was getting it done in a timely fashion,” says Kall. “We had to have larger crews working around the clock with huge amounts of material. It is three times the size of a normal house.”
The pool is definitely the centerpiece and a focal point,” she says. “There is lots of room for swimming laps, a shallow end for the kids, a sun ledge for parents to keep an eye on the younger ones — and also for them to enjoy time in the sun.”
The pool also has a spa, diving board, and, of course, an adjacent pool house, complete with his-and-her changing rooms, a laundry room for drying towels and swimsuits, and storage space for water sports equipment, which include favorites basketball and water polo complete with net.
“The purpose of the house was gathering and fun, so all the outdoor spaces cater to that. Our design out there was very much focused on the pool house,” says Morris.
All the utilitarian spaces are tucked behind the pool house, which is an open cabana-like structure with a vaulted nickel gap V-groove ceiling finished in the same paint color as the exterior of the house for continuity. The Pennsylvania Fieldstone, used on the main house’s exterior facade and interior fireplaces, also faces an outdoor fireplace, rendering the space suitable for year-round use.
“We created two seating areas, one covered in the shade and one out in the open for sunning,” says Morris. “There is a dining area that seats up to 12 and a full outdoor kitchen with a bar, sink, refrigeration, burners, and grill.”
The materials used are all weather-resistant, from the composite cabinetry, sporting a rustic faux wood grain, to the leathered black granite countertops. All the furnishings, a mix of wrought iron and woven pieces curated over time, are suitable for extensive outdoor use.
“She (the wife) wanted the look to be preppy and nautical, with a variety of styles and blue-tone hues, from sea glass to navy, picking up from the pool,” says Morris.
The husband, who founded an area business, also likes to have his colleagues and friends over, including in his home office, which features a wood-coffered ceiling and a full bar.
“He has people over all the time. It’s a well-used space, though, by the whole family. When it’s too hot outside, the grandkids may come and color in there, or the couple might enjoy lunch or a drink at the bar,” says Morris of the home office.
To accommodate larger events that might include catering services or a live band, the rear of the house opens onto an 86-by-50-foot stone patio, overlooking the swimming pool and pool house. Dirt from the building was used to create a berm to one side to stop the noise from traveling toward a neighboring property.
“The homeowner put a lot of effort into making sure everything worked well for entertaining and for the overall guest experience,” says Kall.
Inside, there are also two movie theaters. This provides the option for catching a film in the comfort of air conditioning on extra-hot days and caters to the range of ages in the family, who may want to watch different movies.
“They really wanted a generational home, where they could gather in comfort for years and enjoy each other’s company,” says Morris. “They created their own version of the neighborhood pool. A place to have family over, to grill, to swim. That special place where summer is eternal.”
Feature image by Stacy Zarin Goldberg
This story originally ran in our July issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
